30 days for clients and agencies to kick the free pitching habit

Recently I’ve written two stories, one of a design business’s decisions to decline free pitch contests and one of a client, who refuses to request them. Both of these stories showed how they were successfully managing to do this, to the benefit of their businesses.

Did their stories make you think? Did they make you want to change your approach? Are you keen to do less speculative pitch work, drop it altogether? If you are, then we’re right behind you and can help you navigate the common barriers to change, whether you’re an agency or client.

Common perceived barriers

‘Pitching creative can be addictive.’

It’s a combination of the thrill of the chase and the open invitation to ‘show us what you’ve got.’ It’s a heady cocktail. But, you need to get the chase on equal terms. To quote Jonathan Ford, chief creative officer and founder of Pearlfisher, “The simple fact is the more you say ‘no’, the more they will want to work with you on your terms.”

Action: Replace the time you spend creating work in response to pitches with something else. Focus on your presentation style, using your previous creative. Do an audit of your current clients’ competition. Phone one of your current clients and invite them to meet to discuss your findings. Get your team around the table and unpick your recent work. Update your website. Do some work on ‘you’, your business.

‘A client doesn’t want to know what I’ve done for other clients. They want to know what I’m going to do for them.’

Sounds fair, but read between the lines on this one. For ‘know’ read ‘feel comfortable to as great a degree as is reasonable.’ For “what you’re going to do for them,’ read ‘what’s going to happen that will make me feel secure we’ll get the right result?’

Action: Work on your process – think about how you do what you do and how you would describe that to a business. Look at your recent work from every conceivable angle. What problem did it solve? What size of business was it for? Who are their customers? Generate confidence around the processes your business follows.

And for clients

‘I’ve not seen a formal process for selecting a design business so asking them to show me some creative seems the best approach.’

A formal alternate process to free pitching does exist. The DBA has designed a road map for design buyers on how get to the right outcome. It’s been endorsed by ISBA, a key client industry body.

Action: Take a look at the roadmap here. Compare it with your current process. Share it with your colleagues. Look at it away from a live job. If switching to this roadmap involves change then you’ll want to do this when there isn’t a deadline resting on it.

‘I’m not confident of what I’m buying. Having something to show my colleagues gives me confidence’.

You need to be able to justify your decision to use an agency. Getting the best evidence can be seen as the best way to explain your decision.

Action: Ask your agency shortlist for evidence of how they’ve solved the same problem that you have, for other clients. Get them to explain their process and the end results. This constitutes the best evidence because it is what an agency has produced for their clients under comparable circumstances to how they’d be working for you. This gives you something to show colleagues – evidence of their past work and their creative process.

‘It’s the way I buy other things. If I want some furniture or a computer I can try them all out before I buy them.’

The difference is that for a client-agency relationship to truly work well, it will be the result of collaboration. You bring your perspective and expertise. Your selected design partner brings theirs. The end result of the creative process is delivered when an agency has taken time getting to know you and will inevitably involve you in the process.

Action: Seek to understand the chemistry element of your decision. What is the culture of your business and what agency relationships have worked best for you? How would you describe them? That’s your criteria for assessing the agency’s potential to be a great collaborator in the future. The chemistry element of the meeting is to see ‘do we get on?’, ‘do they understand us?’, ‘do we ultimately share the same purpose as businesses?’

Break through the barriers and set your business 30 days to start kicking the free pitching habit. We’d love to hear from you if you decide to do so.

Read this next

To expect professionals to do work for nothing is of course quite wrong. And yet that is what creative agencies expect of some of the professionals who service them. I’m a talent broker in the creative industries and approach each assignment in a consultative and considered way, put in time, effort, expense and my 20+ years of experience. And very often I do all this on a “free pitch” basis because creative agencies don’t appear to respect the work that I do to bring them the talent they need to keep them in business and so won’t pay for it. I will support any agency which is principled enough to refuse to free pitch – if they can treat their suppliers in the same way please.

Perhaps the question is about what ‘work’ a supplier should be prepared to do to win the actual work.The days of ‘winning work by word of mouth, recommendation’ or generally what might be considered to be ‘incoming enquiries’ seem to be over. I’ve had 2 conversations with agency heads this week on this topic. So adapting to this change involves a mindset shift on the sellers part. They now have to sit down and figure out how they approach the business of winning business, the ‘work to get the work’. This is fine but it’s a process of self education for some. It relies on proactivity and setting some sensible parameters around what they will and won’t do to get the work. It’s fair to expect to have to graft to win the opportunity to work with a client. But this should stop short of doing the very work that you would be asked to do should you be appointed. So it’s about polite clarity- ‘here’s our track record of working for businesses like yours on challenges like you have. here’s how we would work for you….chemistry=good. Bingo!!!!

I’m guessing all of the agencies that are no longer pitching for free will hastily be reducing their day rates, to reflect the fact their creatives are no longer needing to subsidise their pitch work.

For some agencies, with top notch creds, and a stunning client book, I have little doubt this would work. For the smaller, up and coming agencies, still developing great portfolios, I don’t really see how they are likely to have any chance to get a foot in the door any longer.

I’m pretty sure there will always be agencies prepared to invest thousands of hours in a pitch, for the promise of a lucrative pay off should they win the client. The pitch process should be a process during which the agencies get to know the client, learn about their struggles, and help to formulate strategies to overcome them. I can’t help but feel that without that process the end creative will ultimately suffer.

We invest in working on ‘us’ (having never engaged in free pitching). This gives us so much more in return, which benefits our existing and prospective relationships. We do still get a chunk of our new business from referrals so having a good process and tools in place to put your best foot forward is essential.

I know we have missed out on some potential projects (and they missed out on the chance to work with us!) but there are also those projects that have been SO much better because there was more time to collaborate before the creative work started. I think this leads to more referrals, creating a positive cycle.

I have found that in a face to face meeting you can sensibly discuss with a prospective client why creative pitching is not needed/useful. The client needs to believe that it is a collaborative experience too and be prepared to meet.

If you think about it, it should not be hard to turn down the alternative: “Hi, we’re a company you don’t really know very well and we’ve never met but here’s a brief (by email), come and pitch next week”.

We invest in working on ‘us’ (having never engaged in free pitching). This gives us so much more in return, which benefits our existing and prospective relationships. We do still get a chunk of our new business from referrals so having a good process and tools in place to put your best foot forward is essential.

I know we have missed out on some potential projects (and they missed out on the chance to work with us!) but there are also those projects that have been SO much better because there was more time to collaborate before the creative work started. I think this leads to more referrals, creating a positive cycle.

I have found that in a face to face meeting you can sensibly discuss with a prospective client why creative pitching is not needed/useful. The client needs to believe that it is a collaborative experience too and be prepared to meet.

If you think about it, it should not be hard to turn down the alternative: “Hi, we’re a company you don’t really know very well and we’ve never met but here’s a brief (by email), come and pitch next week”.

You’re quite right, Mark; the process is both impersonal and counter-productive. That’s why we no longer pitch for free.

And when we stopped, we had no intention of reducing our fees. Why would we? We’re in the business of producing great work and making money – for us and our clients (if that’s their brief).

Many moons ago, pitching once had a certain allure. We had short, short lists and – often – big carrots at the end of the sticks. Genuine business. But as with most things in life, it got abused: the pitch became the free pitch, the shortlists got very long and the carrots got very, very small.

The truth is that these ‘opportunities’ just don’t deliver. They’ll always be ‘jam tomorrow’ and it’s territory we’ve well and truly left behind. You should try it. It’s not as hard as you may think – and quite invigorating when you first calmly explain your business principles to a potential client, who then goes onto hire you.

I wouldn’t worry about the ‘elite’ agencies. Not every client wants to work with them; sometimes the chemistry does’t work or the fit is a poor one, for all sorts of reasons.

Concentrate on your own offering and how you can effectively communicate that to your potential clients – ones that don’t want you to work for free. I can assure you that there are plenty out there.

You’re quite right, Mark; the process is both impersonal and counter-productive. That’s why we no longer pitch for free.

And when we stopped, we had no intention of reducing our fees. Why would we? We’re in the business of producing great work and making money – for us and our clients (if that’s their brief).

Many moons ago, pitching once had a certain allure. We had short, short lists and – often – big carrots at the end of the sticks. Genuine business. But as with most things in life, it got abused: the pitch became the free pitch, the shortlists got very long and the carrots got very, very small.

The truth is that these ‘opportunities’ just don’t deliver. They’ll always be ‘jam tomorrow’ and it’s territory we’ve well and truly left behind. You should try it. It’s not as hard as you may think – and quite invigorating when you first calmly explain your business principles to a potential client, who then goes onto hire you.

I wouldn’t worry about the ‘elite’ agencies. Not every client wants to work with them; sometimes the chemistry does’t work or the fit is a poor one, for all sorts of reasons. Concentrate on your own offering and how you can effectively communicate that to your potential clients – ones that don’t want you to work for free. I can assure you that there are plenty out there.